Jan. 27, 2014

Scarlett Johannson in a still from the SodaStream ad shoot. / SodaStream

Written by

Bruce Horovitz

USA TODAY

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The "Reject Bowl" for Super Bowl ads has kicked off with about a week to go before the Big Game.

Fox has rejected this year's SodaStream Super Bowl commercial — roughly one year after CBS, the Super Bowl broadcast network for the last game, took a similar action against SodaStream's spot for that game.

This year's rejected ad for the make-your-own soft drink company — which stars red-hot actress Scarlett Johansson sensually sipping her home-made soda — got nixed because it ends with her saying, "Sorry, Coke and Pepsi."

That's the line that Fox has demanded that SodaStream kill, says Birnbaum. "What are they afraid of?" asks Birnbaum. "Which advertiser in America doesn't mention a competitor? This is the kind of stuff that happens in China. I'm disappointed as an American."

The two soft-drink giants, longtime spenders on Super Bowl ads, are back in the game this year, and Pepsi also is sponsoring the halftime show.

Fox executives declined to comment. So did executives from PepsiCo. Coca-Cola spokeswoman Lauren Thompson said: "I can confirm we did not pressure Fox. Other than that, we don't comment on our competitors' efforts."

It's nothing new for smaller Super Bowl advertisers, without huge ad budgets, to submit ads they know network censors will reject — and then rush out to the media and denounce the rejection. GoDaddy, which used to be the Super Bowl's raciest advertiser, is widely viewed as the pioneer of this public relations tactic.

But Birnbaum insists that was not SodaStream's intent, this year or last year.

Birnbaum says that SodaStream will drop the line —- because it has little choice. "If I could get my money back, I'd be happy to be out of that deal."

Adman Alex Bogusky, who helped to create the ad, said, in an e-mail, that SodaStream's two big competitive advantages are "less bottles in the trash and less sugar in the soda."

He's angry, Bogusky says, "that Fox protects its big advertisers to the detriment of the environment and consumers."

Nixing the line, however, probably means just a bit more screen time of Johansson sipping soda, says Bogusky. "So that's nice."